while this particular implementation may be lacking, the concept as a whole is sound and should be supported by local governments and distributed throughout the land. If I had a chance, I would include semi-automatic, automatic and bolt action rifles and pistols both design and manufacture, along with appropriate ammunition, I would also include the resources to smelt and reprocess scrap and ore at one end of the facility, delivering raw slabs of steel of various compositions to the other processes, maybe small diesel engines, wind mills, refrigeration and what not, stuff at the lower end of the civilization boot strap process. Then have a pharma section capable of producing the basic life-saving drugs we rely on today. All in all interesting piece.

have any one of those "almost fascist measures" been repealed since?

he's been in power 4 years, he could have repealed them all by now.

LOL, you think the end result of that will be democracy?

I thought 1984 had surveillance everywhere, posts on the sidewalks, etc.

I thought they never came out and said it, but Fahrenheit 451 the TV was in use as a surveilence device.

time to re-read them both

there's a lot of "dumb" in this group of answers all throughout. people advocating all sorts of rediculous things.

Rochester, NY.

serious question, wouldn't a microwave pulse of this magnitude completely fuck up anyone who has fillings in their teeth? I'm thinking, eploding fillings?

have you ever cooked satisfactory bacon in a microwave? I mean, hey, it's still bacon, but it's not optimal bacon.

so all I have to do is move to Ecuador?1?!?

isn't this the equivalent of an EMP? just using shorter wavelengths? So it's going to cook anything that has a micro circuit in it, even if it's off.

Fry: That's not an astronaut, it's a TV comedian! And he was just using space travel as a metaphor for beating his wife.

you graduated in 1775? ;-)

there are dozens of offset printers, or commercial print shops in my small city metro area, of course, they're not physical typesetting, but they certainly are graphically type setting, and printing on old fasioned printing presses (offset printing hasn't changed much, has it?) They also have high volume laser printers in operation, but old school printing is very much a business today.

I've never figured out why people worship the indians as if they were so noble and eco-friendly. Around here, hundreds of years ago, they would rotate their habitation through several towns, each one a few days' walk from each other. They would then strip the land bare of game and fuel for an almost day's walk from the town. When things got tight, they would pack up and move off to greener pastures. Rinse, repeat. God help those who clashed for resources, the clubs would come out, and they would carve little stick figures in the club for each enemy killed. They would carve a slightly smaller figure for women and children killed. One club at a local preservation site has 20 marks, along with the owner's tattoos and markings reproduced to show who owned the club. Crazy stuff, sort of like a figher pilot stamping the flag of the enemy he downed on the side of his plane.

They formed the settlements in a sort of large ring pattern, so you always encroached on the next oldest settlement, creeping up to it. over the years until you landed on it in a migration. Very few of the settlements were permanent around here.

The system in New York actually includes an opt-out for many kids, vocational training. It's a fantastic way for a kid to spend 1/2 the day at the training schools learning a real world job, many graduate with certificates and professional licenses, more are on their way to that state, and all get a great experience. There's IT, nursing, electronics, drafting/design, electrical/HVAC and whatnot, machining, farming, construction, auto-repair and quite a few other subjects. Some of my classmates were building heathkit robots and computers before our school had computers for students.

IIRC, the kids in my graduating class missed chorus, band, and some science and math courses mostly because by the time they start vocational training they've already had algebra and geometry, and didn't need trig and calculus for state diplomas.

Seemed pretty reasonable then, seems like a wise choice today.

that does sound like fun, my kid is bored as hell in school science, but I bet a little burn time with our friend thermite would perk him right up.